Well here we go:So far we know the following:USA sweater/ Australia JumperUSA Comforter/ Aust. Doona / NZ & UK DuvetUSA yarn/ Aust. woolUSA Trailer/ Aust. CaravanOK in Australia a trailer is a small box shaped thing that you hook on to the back of the car to go camping or take the rubbish to the tip or whatever. It is for carting stuff around that will not fit in the boot of the car.Oh Oh ! I think that is another one. We call it the boot, you call it the trunkAlso the thing you call a thong is called a "G String" in Oz.Here a thong is a thing you wear on your foot. Actually you wear a pair of thongs. Plastic/rubber sole with a piece coming up between your big toe and the second toe and going out around the front part of the foot. I think somewhere they are called flip flops. USA? NZ? This one has been known to cause a lot of embarrassing confusion.An 80 year old friend of my sister bought a G string and complained that it was the most uncomfortable thing she had ever worn. I do not know how my sister worked it out. I blush to think, but she discovered that the poor dear was wearing it back to front.Now what does all that have to do with knitting? Well I guess someone might say they have decided to knit a thong and you will think of a G String and I will think of something to go on the feet.Or somebody might have to cart their stash around in a trailer???

In the US the thong sandal is called flip-flops. What you call a trailer, we also call a trailer (to haul stuff to the dump), in addition to the trailer you call a carravan. What other items can we add to the dictionary??judy

Ah Ha! Tip in Aussie is called dump yard in USA. Thanks azblue.There are of course things like Us "sidewalk" = aussie "foot path"I think also what you call a "pacifier" we call a "dummy". Also we do not call them "diapers" we call them "nappies".I am sure others will come out in time.

The English teachers from my language school did a whole tv programme about a poor Brit who travelled to the U.S. and had apparently never watched a single American tv show in his life...

So he asked for chips with his meat and got crisps ("chips is what you want, chips is what you get"), wanted to wash up and was sent to the kitchen (when he was looking for the bathroom) and whereas he wanted to give a ring to his girlfriend, he was not yet at the proposing stage but looking for a telephone... And I (sitting in Munich, BE being as foreign as AE) was wondering all the time: They can't be all that oblivious about the differences - or can they?

Two countries separated by a common language...

By the way, comparing with Australia looses a lot in writing - it took me ages to figure out what "clipping from the piper" meant (in the Redgum song "I was only 19") ;)

I've got a funny one from a Scottish man I work with. He came to states for the first time for a business meeting in Texas. They took him out to dinner and after they ate and were sitting around chatting he announced he was going to go outside to have a fag. They were all stunned until they realized he meant a cigarette.

Robinstephanie mentioned in the previous thread that "pissed" in the UK means drunk but in US it means angry.I replied that it means drunk in Australia too but my daughter has pointed out that "Pissed off" means angry.As for "Clipping from the piper" that is totally foreign to me. I don't think I have ever heard it and I have heard the "Only 19" song but never noticed it. What on earth does it mean?There are customs that are different too. For example, if you have a side salad with your meal, when do you eat it? A friend was overseas and ordered a salad with her meal. She sat there waiting for the main meal to come because we eat them concurrently. Her daughter told her they would not bring her main meal until she had eaten the salad. I cannot remember whether she was in Italy or USA.

Written it would be "the clipping from the paper" ;) But I heard "piper"... (actually, I still hear "piper" but it doesn't faze me any more, after watching Mad Max 1 to 3 a few times in the original version. Btw., Mad Max 2 is called "Road Warrior" in the U.S., isn't it?).

I was a newly married kid from the US in Scotland in the late '50's, and found the domestic vocabulary needed for shopping and keeping house confusing!Cans of fruit were "tins of fruit", breakfast rolls were "baps", cookies were "biscuits", cake was a "sponge" (!) and the currency was still in shillings and pence. The first loaf of bread I bought was priced by the lady behind the counter at "lumpence ha'penny". This was so impossible for me, that she said "Just give me your coins, luv,", and she gave me change from a shilling of a halfpenny. So it was "eleven pence halfpenny" that a loaf of bread cost. Who knew????Oh, and of course you shopped every day for your "messages" (groceries), lunch was "dinner", and dinner was "tea".

In Northern Ireland the "dumpster" was the "skip". When you showed up to visit somebody it was "calling" but when you phoned them on the telephone it was "ringing"--endless confusion in my house over that. I was always telling my room-mates that so-and-so had "called" and they'd be like, "Really? She didn't tell me she was coming to town."

There are even fun differences within a country: a son-in-law from another area of the U.S. was floored by our Okie use of "fix," which to him meant only to repair something. Here, we fix dinner and are "fixin' to" go to town, get dressed, etc.

For me, I still say "thongs" for flip-flops.

Donna, with intentions always bigger than her available time. (OkieDokieKnitter on Ravelry)

The word "zori" is the Japanese word for the thonged shoe. Its an old word-- I know that zori were made of wood and reeds or grasses woven.The wood was small pieces, two per shoe, which lifted the sole (woven of reeds or grasses) above the mud and rain puddles and other messes. The thong was firmly woven cloth, maybe a little velvety to be easy on the foot.

You couldn't walk very well in them, but sort of shuffled along. There was a cute white "sock" made of fabric, with a slit for the big toe, so the thong could fit on the foot.

I used to have a pair of old-fashioned zorii which had been given to my father long ago (he was born in Japan), so I remember this much, anyway. But to any Japanese knitter out there who really knows what zorii are, please excuse my ignorance! And tell me about them!

Can anyone tell me about the salad issue that I mentioned above? When we get a side salad with our meal, it is customary to eat it concurrently with the main. I know that in Country A you eat it before the meal and in country B you eat it after the meal because a friend was telling me about it. I know the two countries were Italy and America but I cannot remember which was which.In Australia it is getting to be that we eat our salad first but only because we get our salad from the salad bar while we are waiting for the main meal to come. That is in a bistro.

No way! Thanks, Lucybug and Anna--I've never run into anybody who remembers that word, even my own family don't remember it anymore, and I *swear* we used it when I was little... and then it went away and I had to use this new ugly word flip-flop. Thanks for your description, Anna. I can kind of picture the originals now.

Grand-Moogi, in the USA (as far as I know) we have our salad before the meal. However, most restaurants are in such a hurry to "turn" the table, they'll bring you your main meal whether you're finished with your salad or not. I think it's more expensive restaurants that actually bring you your salad, let you eat it at leisure, clear it, and then bring a hot main meal to the table, but I can't be certain, as I don't do that very often!

In many parts of Europe--France, Germany I think--I've been served a salad after my main meal, and I've heard that's customary. Whether it's a regional think or a national thing, I don't know.

Anna - I do remember the Japanese zoris when we were on Guam - but I didn't remember they were also called zoris. They did look very difficult to walk in. Our zoris were very cheap rubber thongs. I think the socks you wear under the Japanese style were called tabbies (sp?) -- but it's been so long since I even thought about them I'm probably wrong.